Medetai
by Ciircee
Summary: A Rika/Terada story set in the Third Arc.


Disclaimer: CLAMP, CLAMP and oh! CLAMP.

Dedication: To Chelle-sama. Because Rika's not a freak and Terada isn't skeazy. (And yes, I'm paraphrasing Tin and Suppi-chan)

Note to note: Third Arc. Takes place, timeline-wise, after 'Kahou' but before 'Jinmirai'. Again, all Third Arc stories (exception Haikei/Kitaku) can be read as a stand-alone story. There is no need to read any of the others unless you want to. You do want to, right? 

Title Translation: [medetai] (adj) happy

_Medetai_

Rika is humming to herself when she hears his keys jangle in the lock. It's the happiest sound she knows and she begins to sing the words as he enters their apartment. Hanging his shirt in the closet she turns just in time to be caught up in his arms and kissed hello.

"Yoshiyuki," she smiles. "You're home early." Her husband kisses her again before releasing her and she smiles just a little more, for him.

"I know that you want to be able to spend more time with Mizuki-sensei at the shrine," he shrugs. "So I decided to bring some work home with me to keep me company while you're gone." She smiles again as she returns to the laundry she is putting away; he loves to watch her smile over the thousands of countless little tasks she does throughout her days. "Have you..." he trails off, uncertain; there are still days when he fears she'll discover the folly of marrying so young, to somebody so much older.

"Have I?" she inquires with a puzzled frown, a quick glance over her shoulder. She reads his apprehensions in his face. "Yoshi," she giggles, "are you worrying after me again? Mou, you're like my mother." She's abandoned the laundry to pat his face, stroke his cheek with soft, comforting fingers.

"I like your mother," he reminds her, soul a little lighter as he presses a kiss to the crown of her head; he's known her nearly twenty years and she is still small enough to tuck under his chin. "Your mother didn't disown me for marrying you." It stings, thirteen years and it still stings.

She understands, wraps her arms about his waist. "Or me, for that matter," she agrees in a light tone, wanting to see him smile. "However, I have news to make you both a little happier, I think." She knows, has always known, how much her mother and her husband have worried about her choice to stay and make a home rather than go to University and have a career. She's always been happiest when busy with the task that make life a lovely, happy thing; cooking, sewing, making the room sparkle and her family happy. She's taken classes for years, in all her interests; despite this, they worry. It warms her heart even though it exasperates her. "I've agreed to consider doing a voice for Tomoyo-san and Sakura-san's anime."

"You have?" he can't help drawing back to stare at her; she was so very set against the idea. The day that Tomoyo-san had first asked Rika to consider had been the only day he'd ever seen her furious. Livid was, perhaps, a better word. "And have you decided on when you're going to decide?" He knows that she has; whenever she's had a decision to make, she has set herself a dead-line; it used to come in very handy, she always has said, when she volunteered for projects at school events.

Tonight," she manages to keep the shake out of her voice, not sure why it wants to be there. "I want to discuss it with Mizuki-sensei first." She watches a touch of hurt filter into his eyes. "I want to know if it will interfere with the...project...she and I are working on."

"Ah, the 'project'," he smiles. This project, whatever it is, has made Rika very happy; though she has not been _unhappy_, she is sparkling again in a way that he only realizes now, that he had missed. "Go then, ask Kaho-sensei your questions. Will you tell her, for me, that Hiroshi-san has agreed to her terms? Maths and English, and he'll work at the Shrine for two weekends a month." 

Rika sighs, laughing inside, four years and he is still finding students for Mizuki-sensei. "I will...when I finish this laundry."

"I can finish it," it still amuses him that she seems to believe he is unable of taking care of his own laundry and meals. The only time she took a trip, two days with a cooking class on a tour of restaurants in Tokyo, she assured him for a week that she knew he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself; she'd left the freezer full of meals to heat up and had all but washed the clothes on his back before she left. "Go. Shoo."

"Oh, but I..." she has a system, a way of hanging things in order to prevent wrinkles, a way of placing his favorite shirt right where he will reach for it and...and he is laughing at her.

"Go. On." He steers her gently to the front door, laughing at how sweet she is when she thinks he's incompetent. "I will hang them in just the same you would. You can re-arrange when you come home."

She can't help laughing at him, at how silly he is sometimes, "I'm not that bad."

"No, you're not," he agrees, kissing her gently, happy. "But you're very happy to be able to boss me around. So go. I'll see you when you come home."

She stretches up, she must, to return his kiss. "I love you, Yoshiyuki." 

He has to kick her out or he'll never let her go. "Quit stalling, Rika. I'm not letting you at my shirts again until you can come home smelling like incense and looking like you've spent the evening walking by the Bird Pond." She giggles at him and lets him open the door for her; he loves to see her laughing. He watches her as she makes her way to the bank of elevators at the end of their hall . "Rika, I love you, too." She's blushing when she waves at him, he sees. How wonderful.

How funny, she thinks as she presses the button for the ground level, that he can still make her blush with just a few simple words. How wonderful.

* * *

  
"You're early, Rika-san," Kaho says as she bows her through the door to the Tsukimine Shrine's Holistic center and into one of the private meditation rooms. There are, visible only to a Priestess as powerful as she, swirling colors of discontent; unfortunately they are also centered around the last of the dark spot that has marked Rika for years. She does not say this, however, waiting for the younger woman to speak of it.

Rika knows her smile is a little forced as she nods, but she has learned to be honest with this woman. "I am. I'm also troubled...but I don't know if...I don't think it concerns our work."

"It must," Kaho says gently, opening bottles of herbs for steaming. "Or you would not have brought it up, ne?" 

"You're probably right," Rika smiles in response to the sweet, cheerful smile of her former teacher, but her mind is still troubled as she readies herself for the acupuncture and massage. "Sensei? You know about Sakura-san's manga, right?" 

"Of course," Kaho's smile widens. "She and Hiiragizawa-san are very proud of it; they've made Tomoeda famous." She places the needles, one by one, to unblock Rika's womb and listens to the magic she is working in the silence of the room.

Rika sighs, but she doesn't speak for a long time, letting her thoughts drift to the baby she wants. She is aware of Kaho leaving her to relax and..."It's going to be an anime," she says quietly into the empty room. "They want me to voice Ayame." 

"Do you want to?" Kaho keeps her voice soft, pitched soothingly, as she enters the room again; she does not want to disturb Rika's impromptu meditations. As a Priestess, this is what she has been working for and as a friend, it is what she has been hoping would happen. The dark spot is floating, moving finally after long years.

Rika drifts, listening to the faint sounds of lotions being warmed. "Ayame is one of my favorite characters. I bought all of the mangas, did you know? As soon as they were published, I bought them. I called Tomoyo-san the day she bought the company to laugh with her; they'd done such a silly panel at the end to commemorate it. Magic-Magic girl is their most popular manga. Everybody has been waiting for it to be anime."

"Rika-san, do you want to do this?" Kaho wonders if the young woman knows that her eyes are shimmering with tears.

"Ayame is my favorite character. Sakura-san told me, when she asked me to do the voice, that she always thought of me when she wrote for Ayame. I was her first choice for the voice."

"Rika-san..."

"I can't, Sensei." Rika knows the ceiling tiles in this room by heart; she learned to watch them as Mizuki-sensei taught her how to meditate after treatment. "It'll be so popular. People will ask questions. They'll want to know things."

Kaho lets her fingers stroke away tension that builds quickly as she focuses on the darkness. "You don't have to tell them anything, you know."

"They'll find out. They'll find out about Yoshiyuki. I can't let them. I can't do anything that will jeopardize him; he lives to teach. It's all he's ever wanted, in the entire world."

"Aside from you," Kaho lets out the breath she has been holding, only know realizing that she's been holding it. "Rika-san, how old are you?"

It's such an odd question that Rika turns her head sharply, looking right at Kaho; she is surprised to find that the needles are out and the massage begun. "I--twenty-nine, Sensei. Why?"

"Hm. And how long have you been married?"

"Sensei?"

Kaho's fingers sweep the tension from the neck, pleased it does not return, and move onto Rika's face. "Don't you think people know, by now, that you are married to your former teacher?"

Rika's heart is hammering as she stares at the young Priestess kneeling over her. "Of course they do...but....not everybody is happy. Some people," Yoshi's mother, her own uncle, "they tried to go to the school. To say what had happened. We didn't know until after the wedding. The school told Yoshiyuki what had been said and that they protected him because he is a good teacher who would never do such a thing."

"Ah," Kaho has known this for some time as she was one of the people questioned about him. She had told the board that she had never seen any signs of impropriety between the two...that if there had been love it had been a properly handled thing; it was not, nor had it ever been, a lie. Terada-sensei and the girl who would be his wife had had the innocence of children in all of their actions. "Rika-san, not everybody will be happy all of the time. Some people who find out may think the same as the people who went to the school. But you have a lot of protection around you; the school has defended Terada-sensei before...there was never even a formal hearing, they believed in him so strongly. Sakura-san and Hirragizawa-san will stand beside you; so will Eriol-san, Takashi Yamazaki and Takashi Chiharu. Many, many people will support you; in all things, Rika-san. If you would let them."

Rika blinks back the tears that she has not realized were in her eyes. "I can't ask them to do that, Sensei

"They already do, without you asking. They worry for Rika-san when she curls around her dark fear and doesn't let them help her. They want her to be happy. They are happy when she is happy because they love her very much." She pauses, watching the dark eyes as they turn these thoughts over. She has done what she can; the rest is for Rika. "It's time for your walk around the pond, if you like. You'll have to be quick, however, if you want to use the mineral baths before the sun sets."

"No," Rika feels light as she sits up. "Sensei, I've been a fool, haven't I?" She is laughing as she says it. She cannot help herself. Part of her laugh is sad because she has wasted a lot of time and yet...most of it is happy. Now is the perfect time to be happy; to be happy now wastes no more time.

Kaho beams brightly at the young woman in front of her; a young woman she has not seen for long years, it seems. "We're all fools when we're in love, Rika-san." She is surprised when Rika hugs her suddenly.

"I want to do this, Sensei. I want to do this, too. I want to help people like you've helped me. Because it's gone, isn't it? It's gone and you helped me to do that. Will you teach me?"

Hugging Rika back, Kaho nods. "If that's what you'd like, then I would be happy to." 

Rika steps back, bring her hands together as she bows. "Then, Sensei, I'll see you again very soon. To be your student." She bows again, laughing as Kaho laughs and tells her to go home. There is too much joy in the world. "I'm going!" she calls out as she dashes for the doors.

"Go," Kaho laughs, watching her new student trail happiness like a streamer behind her. "Things are absolutely all right now, for sure."

* * *

He is finishing the dishes, mentally going over the next day's lesson plan, when he hears running footsteps in the hall. Light and quick, he thinks they sound like those of the little girl who lives upstairs; she often comes over for cookies. With a smile he fishes two cookies from the jar on the counter and waits for the knock to come. Instead the door flings itself open and his wife, flushed and glowing, throws herself into his arms. "Rika?"

"Yoshiyuki!" she buries her head into her husband's chest for a moment before pulling back with a grin. "I'm going to do Sakura-san and Tomoyo-san's anime. And I want to have a baby."

He hands her one of the two cookies. "I was expecting Michie," he says inanely. That she wants a child is no secret to him; he wants one too, badly. It has been such a serious, solemn subject that her joyfulness surprises him. "I thought you were her, running."

"I want a little girl," Rika takes a bite of the cookie her stunned husband has handed her, laughing at him. "Bright like Michie, and happy like Kohana, and a good baby like An-tao. Do you remember how An-tao never cried while Sakura-san visited? I want a baby that doesn't cry."

"Okay," he agrees. Something about her joy winds its way into his soul and he laughs, hugging her tightly. "Okay."

"This time, I _know_ it," she says into his shirt. "Can we name her after Great-Grandmother?"

He doesn't question her certainty. He doesn't care to, because for some reason he is just as certain. "If you want, we can name her after all of your grandmothers, as far back as you can remember them."

"I can remember them all the way back," Rika leans back, to smile up into his eyes and watch as those beloved eyes crinkle at the corners when he returns her smile. "Twenty-five generations."

He pretends to consider, unaware that he is grinning like a fool. "Maybe we should have more than one daughter," he says at last.

Rika listens to their laughter ring in the small apartment and she is willing to swear that she can hear all of her friends and loved ones laughing with her. "I love you," she tells all of them. "I love you."


End file.
